Nate's report: Anime Expo 2013 (Day 2-4 + Post AX)

Anime Expo has already been awesome with all the things I've done on Day 1. Let's hope the rest of Anime Expo is as exciting!


Day 2

The whole room woke up later this time around 8am. It was another day where I have to cosplay 2 characters. One was Gilgamesh from Fate/Zero which I planned to debut at this con and Yosuke Hanamura from Persona 4. Again, I had to pack up a cosplay in my backpack and had to carry it all around the con. Cosplay can be very suffering.

I arrived on Day 2 waiting in the autographs line trying to get to the autograph session of Noizi Ito. When I arrived at the Exhibit Hall, the line was packed! And I was wondering was this really how the autograph sessions are? I would learn that Anime Expo has a different way to get autographs. Everyone must line up on the ticket line where you must wait until you reach a table to get a ticket of the autograph session you want to attend to. Each ticket has a number and when you arrive at the session, you must find you spot in line via the number you receive. Well after waiting for an hour, I would receive a ticket for Ito's autograph session during the day. And since I was already there, I might as well get a ticket for Johnny Yong Bosch and Eyeshine while I'm at it. I only had to wait an hour before heading back to the autograph area. So I went around the exhibit hall checking out the dealers that were selling in the hall and grabbing on free things the industry booths were giving out. When it was time to go back, I was placed in a pretty high spot on the line, around the 150s and I was limited on time as well since the Type Moon/Fate series gathering was in 45 minutes. I would end up not getting her autograph. Making that decision, I went to the gathering.

Notice that the gathering was Type Moon/Fate so that meant anyone from Type Moon besides Fate can also attend the gathering. But it was all Fate characters in this gathering. And I'm not complaining, the Fate series is awesome and I believe everyone who attended this gathering assumed so. Me and my roommate Hillary were cosplaying servants not in armored form but in their casual clothes. Me being Gilgamesh and her being Saber. Ryan was also cosplaying Waver Velvet, master of Rider. The gathering turned out pretty well with most of the photoshoots being from Fate/Zero. There were some cosplayers from Fate/Stay Night that made it to the gathering so we had photoshoots of that as well. It was a pretty fun gathering to attend to and I had a great time.

Gilgamesh and Archer with their master, Kotomine Kirei

Everyone from the gathering. You can see they're mostly Fate characters

After the gathering, I went back to the press area bathroom to change out of Gilgamesh to Yosuke. I would then head back to the autographs area in the Exhibit Hall for the autograph session of Johnny Yong Bosch and Eyeshine. This time around, my ticket placed me in a pretty good spot around the 100s and with an hour to wait, I was able to see the band and Johnny himself. I gave them a compliment about their band and how awesome they were when they performed at Sacanime last Summer. They really thanked me and emphasized me to get one of their CDs. The whole line behind me was also rooting for me to get one. Sadly, I had to deny their offer, but at least I got a postcard with the band on it for $5. The whole band would sign the postcard before ending the line with Johnny. I would give him my Persona 4 Arena items including the game cover and the booklet. He would sign where Yu Narukami was since he does the VA of him. I greatly thanked him and he thanked me back and even complimented on my cosplay! He thought I looked great as Yosuke and even questioned me on how I was able to make a cosplay like that. I gave him the details and he was happy to hear what I said to him. That was pretty unexpected, but for real though. I had an actual conversation with Johnny Yong Bosch. And he even likes my cosplays!!!!! Another highlight of AX! 

After the autograph session, I quickly went back to South Hall for the SMT/Persona gathering. My roommates were also there cosplaying from the famous gaming franchise that it seemed like a reunion more than a gathering. But there was a really big turnout for this gathering as a whole lot of cosplayers from the Persona series were at the gathering. There were also some cosplayers of the latest SMT anime, Devil Survivor 2, which was also pretty cool. The gathering overall was great. A big turnout of cosplayers that all led to a fun meetup. But the biggest story of this gathering was that a proposal was made during the gathering! And it was none other than our blog mate, Ryan. Him and his girlfriend were in love for so long that we planned out this proposal for a while and his girlfriend didn't know about it at all. It all worked out in the end. Here's the video: 

Congratulations, Ryan!!!!!

The gathering kept on going but I would take my leave to check on my friend whom wanted to check out the premiere of the Blue Exorcist movie with me. Unfortunately, she was told by the staffers in line that she would not be able to get in. I asked her if she would just stay in line and try her best to get in but after she was told she couldn't get in, she just left. So I met up with her at Exhibit Hall where she was also with another one of my nor-cal cosplay buddies. With nothing to do, I would roam around Exhibit Hall with them checking out more stuff around the hall. I even visited the Crunchyroll booth where Johnny Yong Bosch and Eyeshine would appear on stage. I even managed to grab a few things before we all split up. I would go back to my hotel room to take a break for an hour before heading back to meet up with my group again for dinner. 

Johnny Yong Bosch and Eyeshine are the stars of the Live Show in the Crunchyroll booth

A Nerve Gear from the show Sword Art Online

We would all agree to check out Last Comic Standing. This is where the top 8 comedians from the tryouts in day one would come out today to give us the funniest stand up comedy. The funniest one from the crowd's favor will be crowned this year's Last Comic Standing. I would arrive at the room early to reserve seats for my other friends coming in and I would see my friend, G, was a finalist for Last Comic Standing! But he couldn't get a conversation with me because what he was doing was trying to focus on making a good comedy act for everyone, especially the judges. Once we were all settled in, Last Comic Standing was ready to go. A local band would introduce the hosts of Last Comic Standing and what made us more pumped was an EVA 01 cosplayer in full machine walking around the crowd pumping them up for what lies ahead in this show. The show started up with last year's winner, Soap, warming up the crowd with his comedy. Although to be honest, it was alright. Nothing big of a stand up comedy act, but that was because he wasn't prepared. But it wasn't all about him, he was a judge. It was all about the 8 acts of the night. All of them had good stand up comedy, most of their jokes pulling on big fandoms like My Little Pony, Attack on Titan, Yaoi, Pokemon, and others. The first 4 acts came up and gave out their stand up comedy. 

• Matthew Johnson: Most of his jokes talking about Hentai and Yaoi and he looks like a big fan of it considering that he was wearing a Cammy x Chun-Li necklace. His comedy was pretty nasty, but it was really funny.
• Sean Chiplock: This person really knows how to be a stand up comedian. He did perform at AX before and it seems that he has improved. He didn't need to stutter or stop, it seems like he memorized his jokes so when he was on stage, he knows what to talk about. His jokes were hilarious and he referred so much to familiar animes that I really would get his jokes.  Personally, I thought he was the best comedian in this group.
• Gabe: A newcomer to AX Last Comic Standing. He was pretty slow at his act since he had a cell phone with him that included the jokes to talk about and almost all of his jokes were good. If he only had the rhythm like Sean, he would be a pretty good comedian for not just Last Comic Standing, but other comedian acts as well. 
• Jack Brazil: An East Coast comedian who also performed last year at Anime Expo. I really got to be honest here, he really shouldn't be a comedian. His act wasn't even funny and his jokes didn't get me at all. The crowd seems to be lost with his jokes as well and frankly he just wasn't ready. Even Soap knows he's better than this. Either he was very nervous or he was high, he just didn't deliver a great act. He really shouldn't make it though this round. 

After reactions from the crowd, Gabe would win from this group and would continue on to the grand finals. There was now a halftime break where a band would perform songs from their setlist and from animes as well. And they weren't a good band. I really couldn't understand their singing and their performance wasn't great. In fact it was that bad, half of the audience left. We were only there because our friend was part of the next group in the show. So we had to suffer through it, but I do like that they performed the ED to FLCL. That was pretty cool. After a warm up from a former winner of Last Comic Standing (Fazio), the next group of people were ready to perform.

• G: He was my favor to win it all. His jokes were good, they got me laughing. bBut to be honest, he was too fast. It does seem that he was nervous because he was walking around the stage a whole lot. But at least he knows his jokes. He didn't need a cell phone or a piece of paper to help him out. He pretty much memorized his jokes and just breezed through them. His act was pretty short as well making me assume he didn't have much to say. 
• Pierce Brown: Looked really nice in his white suit. Started out already with an awesome collaboration with his brother for his introduction joke. Let's just say he pretty much made ALL of us feel comfortable with his jokes. His intro joke was really funny. He would continue on with his jokes and they were pretty good. Although is last joke really took the crowd away. He did a really good act just as well as Sean. He should continue to be a comedian for Last Comic Standing
• Greg: First timer for Last Comic Standing. He would admit he never watched anime so he would pretty much joke around about his life around his first time around Anime Expo. It does seem that he doesn't know about anime since his jokes weren't mostly about anime. But even with that setback, he would still pull out a good act. His jokes were pretty funny and it got me laughing quite a bit. For his first time, he did a pretty good job. 
• Anton Torres: A favorite to the Last Comic Standing staff. And I would understand why. It was his first time doing comedy but he pulled off some good jokes. It looked like he wasn't prepared because it seems that he was trying to make up jokes as his act continued on. Lot of anime references and voice acting that he turned out hilarious! He would also perform a song about Japanese School Girl lives and he truly told it in a way that made it hilarious and true (well in an anime sense). He did a great job in his act and was my favorite to win this set. 

After reactions from the crowd, Anton Torres would win in his group and go to the grand finals with Gabe. The final 2 would have to make an improv act about con security. Both would do their improv acts and would be favored by the crowd to find out who will win Last Comic Standing. The winner would be Gabe. He would be praised by his friends on stage for winning and would receive a certificate for winning. He will be Last Comic Standing's judge for next year. You can see all of the Last Comic Standing acts by going here. Courtesy of OtakuWanted.

I would walk back with G and a couple of other Persona cosplayers back to the Westin Bonaventure. It is here where we would have the Persona Midnight Gathering. It is a common thing to have in all Persona gatherings, especially to the ones I've been to. What happens in these gatherings is that we play the kings game. Whoever is the king in each round must call out other numbers and do what the king requests. Some of them can be embarrassing but we're all there to have a fun time right? A couple of my blog mates would get picked on for some acts. I was in the middle of a cock fight with one other person. I would win it and would celebrate with a silly dance. Stupid king's orders... Matt would run around like a joystick turning around and spinning (best of all, it was Ryan who was the king on that one). Ray, Amanda, and Hilary would also be picked on for a couple of the kings orders which were funny to witness. Overall it was a great two hours of us being silly and we all had a great time in the gathering. 

The group that survived it all. Credit to Matthew Miranda

All of my roommates would go back home via Taxi as we get ready for Day 3. Yet again, another awesome day at Anime Expo and I can't wait to see what day 3 lies ahead for all of us.

Day 3

 It all started out early for all of us today as we started out behind the convention center for our Durarara!! gathering. I dressed up as Kida Masaomi and was him throughout the whole day. I was so glad to not bring a backpack anymore. When the time came for the gathering, there wasn't much in attendance to start off with. The gathering would start on time but as the gathering continued on, more Durarara!! cosplayers came to the gathering. So what we started off as a gathering on only like 10 people turned out to be about 30 people in the end. It was because the location site isn't as notable as the other gathering sites that were on the map. So I believe it took some people some time to find the gathering's location. The gathering turned out pretty good. A bad start, but we managed to have a great gathering of Durarara!! cosplayers nonetheless. 

What turned out to be a small gathering.......

.....Turned out to be a massive gathering instead, Credit to Matthew Miranda

An awesome picture of Durarara!! cosplayers on a staircase. Credit to Jeremy from Mission Start Podcast.

After the gathering, I quickly went to the Exhibit Hall to get tickets for Vic Mignogna and Noizi Ito. I was hoping to get a good spot in line for Vic Mignogna, but instead I got another bad number that got me pretty far in the line. So I decided to forget it because I had another gathering I was supposed to take photos of because my friend was in it. It was the Blue Exorcist gathering held by Aniplex. Henry Lee would also host this gathering as cosplayers from the Blue Exorcist anime came to show their fandom from the show. It all started with individual shots of characters from the show. But after that, the English VAs would come in for a visit! Bryce Papenbrook (Rin Okumura), Christine Cabanos (Shiemi Moriyama), and Kira Buckland (Izumo Kamiki) would be in the photos with the cosplayers who cosplayed their character. Also guests of honor Keigo Sasaki (character designer) and Takamitsu Inoue (Producer) would also be there to get a photoshoot of all the cosplayers from the show they have been a part of. Overall, the gathering looked exciting. My friend really liked it and I was glad to be there to take photos. 

The entire group of Blue Exorcist cosplayers in the gathering

Keigo Sasaki and Takamitsu Inoue pose for photos with the cosplayers

Afterwards, I would meet up with my friend who needed help in getting into his costume. His costume would be the Blood Raven Space Marine from Warhammer 40,000. He did a whole lot of work in his costume that I was very impressed with the results. I helped him out in getting himself strapped in making sure he can walk around well and making sure he feels comfortable because it looks to be a handful in that thing. I would help him out guiding him through the parking lot onto South Hall making sure everyone gets out of the way in order for him to have a clean path. Although it was tough to go through since EVERYONE wanted a pic of his costume. I had to sometimes tell photographers that he is walking to south hall stopping most of them from their shots, which I feel sorry for doing that. I would be able to get him to the center of South Hall where everyone can get a pic of him. I even became his "agent" as a couple of photographers wanted me to sign stuff for him. Looks like he's going to be in the next upcoming video of some youtube user. Anyway it was awesome helping him out. Not only did I help him, but he helped me get some cosplay photos in the hall. 

All the huge parts to make a huge mech cosplay.

It all pays out in the end. He had an awesome Space Marine cosplay!

At 2:30, I would have to leave him in order to go to Noizi Ito's autograph session. When I received my ticket, I had a pretty good number (around the 50s) so I went in line only to find out there was a whole lot of people in line. Unfortunately, I couldn't get into that line because they had priority. It seems that the attended Ito's Guest of Honor panel that they would be the ones to go first. And it was a pretty huge line. I decided to not go anymore because in 30 minutes was The Garden of Words premiere. 

I would go upstairs to the room where they would show The Garden of Words only to hear the words I didn't want to hear: "The room is full." I was really desperate in getting into this film because it is made my Makoto Shikai, an awesome artist that makes very beautiful films. I really wanted to see how this movie was going to be. So I tried everything to get in. I fell in line with other attendees only to be halted by a staffer who indicated the line's end. I would go back to the front of the line and told the guy who was letting people in about me being a press member. He would deny my access in. Once everyone from that line got into the room, I would still try to get in via that line only to not let myself in. I would see through those closed curtains in the room to see that there was still many open spots left! I would ask them about the open seating but he stills says that I can't go in. Was it for the guests for honor or something because that was a whole section that is still opened for seating. As I stand outside the room, another huge line came into the room and I was shocked. THERE WAS ANOTHER LINE? None of the staffers told me about this. I could have just gotten into that line in order to be sure I would see the movie. The staffers just pretty much just had to say we're full while there was still a huge line, possibly bigger than the one I was at before, that would go in. So unfair! And you are pretty much not respecting the press badge, line staffers from this premiere. I was really mad about this. I even tried to go in using that line but the doors closed before I got in. I wasn't able to get in at all and it kind of ruined my day there. I would talk to Matt who was also denied access but he didn't go all out like me to watch this movie. He would help me calm down about the situation with fries he got from a food truck (and since I didn't have lunch, I really needed that) and I would just relax there until the time came for the reception. 

The Garden of Words premiere also had a reception down at Lounge 21 for the premiere of the movie. We both got VIP tickets and we would be treated with complimentary drinks as well as an autograph session with Makoto Shikai himself. Since I missed out on that movie and that the Blu-Ray wasn't going to be out until August, I decided to get myself the blu-ray of The Garden of Words and let Makoto Shikai sign it for me. It was something I really needed and it helped me relieve the stress I was having earlier. Or maybe it was the drink I had but whatever. Things got a whole lot brighter after that. 

The stage for The Garden of Words reception.

Makoto Shinkai signing my copy of The Garden of Words! Taken from my iPhone.

What would make this day better is to attend the Porno Grafitti concert.  But unfortunately, I do not have a ticket. But what Matt told me is to wait in this line outside the ticketing area called the standby line. Hopefully we would be able to grab ourselves Porno Grafitti tickets there. So me and Matt would wait for possibly an hour. My friend from the Blue Exorcist gathering would come along as well after I told her we would get tickets to the concert. Ryan and Amanda would also tag along as well. When it was time to get our tickets, we saw that they were handing out a bunch of tickets! I guess the floor was very open to everyone at Club Nokia. So we grabbed them and ran straight to Club Nokia. We would be in the massive line of people going in only to hear a message from the staffers: "NO CAMERAS ALLOWED." Me and Matt had cameras with us so we ran back to west hall, checked in our bags, and ran back in line. We would lose our group but we would manage to find them on the floor. 

My ticket to Porno Grafitti! As lewd as it sounds, I'm very excited! 

Porno Grafitti would perform later than the expected time. It was about 30 minutes after the scheduled time that the lights would go out. The whole crowd was cheering and saying the line "Porno! clapclapclap" Please do not imply your lewd joke here, we really did said that. The spotlights would come up to reveal the band Porno Grafitti and they would begin rocking the house down. I was surprised that they were going to sing the OP of Magi in the beginning but it didn't matter to me. At least they were singing the song I was very familiar with. I even sang through it, that's how dedicated I was to that song. But when the song, Melissa, came up (OP to Fullmetal Alchemist), Matt, Ryan, and Amanda rocked out to that song. They would sing other songs from their hits to anime songs. When they left to indicate the concert ended, most of them wanted them back out so we called out an encore. 5 minutes later, the lights were up and we got a triple encore actually. They played 3 songs, including Melissa again, as part of their encore set. The band really was amazing, especially the lead guitarist who does insane guitar solos. Plus the whole band was awesome as well. Without these talented bandmates, they would not have been the Porno Grafitti band that we know and love. And just look at the facts here. We weren't expected to go to the concert at all this weekend but we managed to get through and it was worth it! The concert was just awesome! It was definitely a great way to end the day at Anime Expo. 

My phone would die in the concert so I didn't have much contact with people. I stuck around with Matt, Ryan, and Amanda as we went to the Luxe to grab ourselves some food while celebrating with drinks on our last night at Anime Expo. I would go back to the convention to find myself one of those charging stations around the convention. One that I know of was at the South Hall where upon getting there, I was stopped by staff. Apparently, the South Hall closes after 9pm. That was something I wouldn't expect to see at a con. Then again, this wasn't a 24 hr. con like Fanime so I guess that's fine. I was still stuck with a dead cell phone so I still looked around the con finding a charging stations to no avail. There was nothing around the con that would made me stay so I went to Fatburger to get myself a needed burger (btw I still haven't gotten a good meal throughout this entire day so this was greatly needed). I would take the metro back to my hotel room to charge my phone and eat more food. I would call it a night there. Well this day had some setbacks but in the end, I was still able to have an awesome day. I mean I thought we would never get to watch Porno Grafitti, but we did and really that was the highlight of whole day for me. It just really sucks that it has to end on the next day. This whole weekend was fun and all I just didn't want it to end!

Day 4

Sadly, all good things must come to an end. This whole Anime Expo weekend was just amazing. All of the days I've attended AX was very fun. I would go out in my Death the Kid cosplay and would head up to the press room to check my Facebook and e-mail on my iPad. Our hotel doesn't have Internet and its really convenient for the press room to have wi-fi and I've been needing to check up on my Facebook this whole weekend. I would notice that Vic Mignogna's autograph session was during the time I was at the press room, but I decided to give up on getting his autograph. I'll try my luck next year. I would finish my work at the press room and went to the entertainment hall where me and my friend would have our own photoshoot using the sets that were set up in the entertainment hall. We would use most of the sets to make some pretty good photos. 

Rin Okumura is always lazy in class

Rin Okumura under the Japanese Arc

You don't wanna mess with a grim reaper!

I can't even do the k's right. I deserve to die! 

We would head back to Exhibit Hall to check out the place one last time before it closes for the year. I would finally go through Artist's alley looking at all of the artist's great artwork. I would manage only get one thing since my money was all gone from dealer's hall and it was an Armin bookmark from Attack on Titan. Afterwards, I would meet up with a friend at the Bushiroad booth to attend a tutorial class. But since we already know how to play the game, we just wanted to play with the deck they have, which was Sword Art Online. But unfortunately the guy who was teaching our table didn't want us to go ahead and play. Instead, we had to continue and follow what he was saying. Well, at least we still got a promo card for attending this. I would tag along with my friend and would grab a couple of free tea bottles from the Ito En table before leaving for the last panel I plan to attend: The Funimation Industry panel.

I would have the access to get in early and get a good seat to see the latest news Funimation is offering. While I was sitting down, a Liz and Patty cosplayer saw me and wanted to seat next to me. I did grant them permission to sit next to me. That was like a fan moment for me. But I was still in business trying to see Funimation's news so I can be able to give you them myself. So I didn't really talk to them that much.

The panel was led by Justin Rojas and Michelle Lee and it all started with a silly song that shows the shows they have. The song was also made by the crew of the Funimation Show. They would remind us the sites to see all of Funimation's shows by going to Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, etc. Funimation did hit 1 million fans on their FB page and because of that, they did announce having the rights of Evangelion 3.0 when the million fans mark was hit. Funimation is also on Toonami which shows a couple of their animes like One Piece, Soul Eater, and FMA: Brotherhood. Now they also did announce that they will be at Comic-Con as well. Funimation does have an Elite Video subscription service where you can see over 8,500 episodes and movies from Funimation shows as well as see Engligh dub episodes before they are released to video, and is available to most mobile devices so you can see Funimation anime wherever, whenever. For only $7.95 a month, this service isn't bad to have. 

Now they talked about their simulcasts for this upcoming summer which includes the hit anime, Attack on Titan (Sundays @ 11am). They also simulcast continuing anime series like One Piece (Saturdays @ 10pm), Toriko (Wednesdays), and Railgun S (Sundays @ 11:30am). Now they did also announce new simulcasts that they will be streaming this season. One very popular series is Dangan Ronpa the Animation. Based off the hit video game, it now has an anime series that Funimation is proud to stream to the many fans out here in the states. They also did announce streaming rights to Brother's Conflict. Streaming dates TBA. Now it is summer and the guys from the Funimation Show recently made a short about........well what summer is about (to them). Here, just watch. 

A Funimation Quickie about summer. Yeah you know what that means...... Credit to TheFunimationShow

As you can see it is a video of beach episodes from animes Funimation has. The Funimation show is on with new episodes every Friday on Youtube.

They would now talk about a couple of Funimation shows coming soon (each on Blu-Ray/DVD combo). They would announce each title out along with a trailer for each of them. Here's a list of shows they announced in part of this in the panel:

• Fairy Tail Vol. 5 (covers episodes 49-60) out 7/23 and Vol. 6 (covers episode 61-72) out 8/20
• One Piece Season 5 Part 1 (covers episodes 264-275) out on 7/23
• Black Lagoon Roberta's Blood Trail complete collection out 8/6
• Haganai complete collection out 8/6
• Dragon Ball Z New edition (complete collection w/ movies plus original dub) out 8/13
• Eureka Seven AO Part 1 (covers episodes 1-12) out 8/13
• High School DxD complete collection out 8/20
• Ghost in the Shell: Arise (includes import blu-ray, films strips, art book, all japanese import) out 8/20. Note: Only 2,500 will be released! 
• Guilty Crown Part 1 (covers episodes 1-11) out 8/27
• S.A.V.E. Collection brings in Case Closed, Hetalia Axis Powers, and Legend of the Legendary Heroes. 

The panel would make a couple of special announcements at Anime Expo. They now have the rights to the One Piece film, Strong World which will be available this September. There have been a couple of English cast announcements to a couple of works they have picked up including Blood C: The Last Dark and Wolf Children. They also announced that the English premiere of the dubbed film will premiere at Otakon later this year. Funimation has also made new aquisitions to a few animes already released, which was Hal and 009 Cyborg. Lastly, Funimation has also announced a new show that they would be streaming this season called Hyperdimension Neptunia. Yes, the video game from NIS America now has an anime series that Funimation is proud to stream this season. 

Justin and Michelle hosting the Funimation Industry panel at AX. 

The panel would end there and it became a Q&A for Justin and Michelle. I really didn't want to stick around so I was about to leave, but not before I had a quick picture with the Liz and Patty cosplayers. 

Death the Kid with Liz and Patty. Now this is an awesome picture. 

Well there was closing ceremonies to go to, but I was called to be back at the hotel room to give a formal farewell to one of our roommates who plans to leave later this afternoon. So I decided to leave the con and got fatburger on the way back to my hotel room. And this pretty much ends my time at Anime Expo. To say the least, everyday at this con was so awesome! And because of that, I had such, SUCH, a great time here! I'll give a full analysis for AX in the next post I'll be putting up but for now it's over for us at Anime Expo. Until next year I guess :(

Post-AX

(After AX)

Oh, were we leaving after AX is finished? No! We actually planned to stay one more day at LA. This is because we just don't want to have PCD (post-con depression) after AX. So why not stay and see what's going on around the city of Los Angeles. But before that, we had to say goodbye to two awesome roommates this weekend, Hilary and Alex. Both of them were so fun to hang with and we had to give a formal goodbye to her before they leave for San Diego. So we decided to take one last photo with all of us in the shot before we gave them hugs and said goodbye. And as an added amusement, we ran to the direction of where they're car was going. Do you remember Persona 4's ending? Yeah we pretty much re-enacted that scene. 

We have become more of a family after this past weekend. I'll never forget these guys. Never more. Credit to Matthew Miranda

We would go back to the hotel room to check up on KTLA's 6pm newscast to see that they were doing coverage of Anime Expo! And surprise, surprise Matthew made it to their telecast. Check out their coverage below. 

KTLA's coverage of AX featuring Matthew Miranda. 

As you can see from the video, over 61,000 attendees this Anime Expo weekend. Holy moly, that must be a record! Well after that fun sight, we would dress up and would go grab dinner at Hollywood Blvd. We would go hit up Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles, a So-Cal restaurant that serves very tasty food. I mean when you look at the title, that just gets you wanting their food! It is my second time eating here and their food always never lets me down. I got myself a very good dinner, greatly needed because I wasn't really eating much at AX. Also, props to the front desk guy at the restaurant. He was an anime fan too and he was asking questions to us about how AX was. 

Attack on Kyubey! @Roscoe's haha

GOOD FOOD!!!! YUMMY!!!!

We would head back to Hollywood Blvd. to check out the Hollywood walk of fame and check out all the stars that were on this walkway. I would see celebrities that I know of like Neil Patrick Harris, Alex Trebek, Leonard Nemoy, Mark Walberg, and others. I did not know Muhammad Ali had his own star that was in the Dolby Theater and that Godzilla had a star as well. I also checked out the Chinese Theater and Dolby Theater when we were there. We were pretty much typical tourists taking pictures and gazing at the sights of Hollywood Blvd. This now became #TouristCon

Ryan with Leonard Nemoy's star. Live long and prosper

Inside the Dolby Theater were pillars containing years. Each year contained  the title of the Oscar for movie of the year. In 2012, Argo would win. What movie will win the title in 2013?

TCL Chinese Theater

We would notice that it was getting pretty late so we took the metro back to our hotel room and would call it a night. We still have one day left at Los Angeles. I wonder what other things are worth seeing around this town.

Day 5

When we woke up the next morning, one thing came to our minds. How is Anime Expo now? Anime Expo has already ended and we just wanted to see how the Los Angeles Convention Center is now that it's over. So we took the metro all the way over to the convention center to see that it's completely empty! Everything from the AX banners to the booths that AX set up were all completely gone. We did manage to make our final video for AX giving our review and sharing our experiences in this con. That video will be posted up soon. We would be able to go inside the convention to see how barren the con is. Here's video of what I took when we went inside the LA convention center after AX. It was definitely a ghost town now. 

Anime Expo is so empty when it's done. 

We would head back to our hotel room to pick up Matt's car as we plan to roam around southern California with it. We would drive to the Little Tokyo district to grab lunch at Orochon Ramen. This place is pretty famous considering it was a place where the host of Man vs. Food took on their challenge. Ryan told me that he took it before and he would be able to pass the challenge. I was there not even planning to take on the challenge because I cannot handle very spicy food like that. I would order a spicy ramen soup (not the challenge level) and the ramen was really good. A very good lunch to have. 

The host of Man vs. Food has a special frame for passing Orochon Ramen's challenge

We would hit up otaku places at Little Tokyo like the Los Angeles Kinokuniya bookstore that has a whole lot more stuff than the San Jose and San Francisco stores. Jungle was awesome and they were selling items that were priced cheaper than Anime Expo. Maybe I should have saved my money and spent it all here. Too Late! It's like I'm reliving AX again when I went into this store. We would leave Little Tokyo to drive up to Rowland Heights to check out this place called Round 1. That place was like the entertainment center of the world. It has a bowling alley, karaoke room, billiards, table tennis, a bar, and best of all an arcade. And it has some of the latest games out there. I would end up playing a couple of games of DDR which now has anime songs apparently! I never seen that ever in my time playing DDR. I even played a couple of games of Maximum Tune where I couldn't even compete with Matt or Ray since they are a whole lot better than me. I've heard there might be one coming down to San Jose. And wouldn't that be grand! We would play in the arcades for an hour before heading out for dinner. 

When did they have anime songs in DDR!?!??!

We would head over to this Filipino restaurant called Manila Bay Seafood Broiler in Chino Hills where we met Matt's family. They would actually treat us out with good seafood and other Filipino dishes that they were serving in the restaurant. It feels like I'm at home again eating the usual food that my mom makes. Only this time it was at a restaurant setting and like my mom's food, it was delicious. I really would like to thank Matt's family for the complementary dinner. It was food that I truly enjoyed.  

We would leave Chino Hills to head back to our hotel where we spent the entire night packing up for tomorrow on our rides back to Northern California. This day was pretty much us checking out Southern California. Although we didn't see all of what so-cal has to offer, it was a fun day nonetheless. 

Day 6

The final day is here and this was the time where we had to say farewell to all of my roommates for helping me have a wonderful time at Anime Expo and Los Angeles. So when the luggage carrier took all our luggage from our room to the main lobby, the innuendo of sad songs played us off. Well, mostly from Ryan's phone. 

Me and Ray would head to the Union Station to grab a bite to eat at the station's Subway before we boarded our bus back to San Jose. Sadly there were no cosplayers on this bus. This isn't the AX bus anymore. I mostly took a nap through most of the ride until we hit up our pit stop in Kettleman City, someplace in the middle of nowhere. When we were about to get off, Matt would call me telling me where we are located. I told him we are at a Chevron station. Just then, I would see Matt's car with Ryan and Amanda on board and they would tag along with us on our break. What kind of coincidence is this? In the middle of nowhere would we see each other again. This is one small world. I would grab a bite to eat at McDonalds as all of us would chill and talk about what happened since we last met. Matt would record a video of us somehow meeting at Kettleman City. 

Reunited once again after leaving LA 4 hours ago.

After that video, we boarded back on our bus without A/C. It turned out our driver forgot to put on the A/C so we were suffering with heat in the bus. But at least there was a fan to cool us down at least until we made it back to San Jose. After 6 hrs on the bus, we arrived back at the Diridon Station where we officially end our coverage of Anime Expo.  

Well that pretty much covers all that I've done during my time at Anime Expo. Sorry that I wrote a whole lot in a report that the other reports I've done previously, but I just wanted to give out my full experience of this con. But my reporting isn't over yet. I will give a full review and my overall thoughts of the con in the next report. Until then, thanks for reading my AX report!